Bai Lianhua slowly approached Mom Hu who was stewing the hangover soup and talked about her experiences at the banquet. She pouted: "Why didn't you tell me that you had sent in photos? I was so embarrassed when people saw how dead l looked on that day!" Mom Hu laughed out loud: "Of course l wanted to embarrass you a little bit! It was funny, don't you think? Besides, this kind of thing isn't taken seriously. They do it all the time! Even l participated when l was younger!"
"By the way mom, how come l have never seen your relatives before? Grandma and Auntie from dad's side always come but l have never seen any grandma or grandpa from your side."
Mom Hu sighed and didn't answer but Bai Lianhua pursed her lips - determined to find out what was going on.
"Mom, guess who l met when l was at the banquet!"
"Who did you meet? Yue Linlan?"
Bai Lianhua rolled her eyes - it was impossible not to meet Yue Linlan. "Actually, l met a Hu Pingheng. He claims to be your nephew!"
Mom Hu dropped her wooden spoon on the floor and a strange silence permeated the room. Dad Hu heard something dropping to the floor so she rushed to the kitchen to see what was going on. He saw Mom Hu in a daze with her eyes very unfocused. Bai Lianhua stood next to her, her forehead wrinkled in worry. "Mom? Are you ok?"
"Xiao Hua, what happened?" Dad Hu asked as he gently wrapped his arms around his wife.
"Dad, l'm sorry, it's my fault. I asked Mom about a cousin who l met at the banquet. He said his name was Hu Pingheng."
Dad Hu's eyes widened and he suddenly couldn't look at his daughter anymore. He didn't really want to reveal the things of those years so he distracted her and told her to take Mom Hu back to the master bedroom.
He then picked up the wooden spoon and washed it in the sink. After that, he continued skilfully making the hangover soup. 'Actually, these things should've been well hidden! Why did Hu Pingheng approach my daughter?' Of course Dad Hu didn't know that Hu Pingheng was attracted to Bai Lianhua otherwise he would never have let them get into contact again. His daughter was carefully raised so that she could possibly win him more support or money - Hu Pingheng wouldn't be within his calculations since the Hu family was declining.
To explain everything that happened, we have to go back to when Mom Hu was a fresh young graduate.
At the time, she had finished university and kept her identity as the rich young miss of the Hu family a secret. Many people came into contact with her and didn't know she was a hidden rich person. Except for Dad Hu.
Dad Hu was a poor student who had come from a mountainous region. He was looking to get rich and marry a beautiful wife. He came to university with his best friend Mei Feng and as top academic performers, their lives gradually improved. The only problem was that Mei Feng was slightly better than Hu Peng in terms of appearance and academic ability. Because of this, he was highly sought out by many companies and many beautiful ladies.
Hu Peng was secretly jealous of Mei Feng but he didn't do anything about his success. Soon, they both graduated from university and both went to work for the civil service. Both Mei Feng and Hu Peng wanted to go into politics and for that, they needed a huge backing.
Then a pie fell from the sky in the form of Mom Hu. One time, Hu Peng was coming back from work and Mom Hu had just been robbed. He took pity on her, gave her a big meal and sent her home. Mom Hu fell in love deeply and wanted to be with him. Still, she knew of his origins and knew that there was an inevitable gap between the two due to social class. That would be a bad catalyst and if they did get married, the marriage may not last.
However, one night, in a drunken stupor, she admitted her identity and Hu Peng knew that his chance was here. He carefully schemed against her and the two cooked raw rice into mature rice. Hu Peng did also fall in love with her during that time and the two were together.
Mei Feng didn't want Mom Hu to be fooled so he told her about Hu Peng's plans and the fact that he schemed against her to make her pregnant. Mom Hu was outraged and completely broke with Hu Peng. Hu Peng was so angry that his plans were revealed and for a time, he dared not meet Mom Hu. To quench his anger, he framed Mei Feng and made him offend the Yue family. To do this, he drugged Yue Lian, the only daughter of the Yue family and had Mei Feng have fun with her.
As a result, Yue Lian became pregnant and she was expelled from the Yue family. Mei Feng also lost his job and they both had to return to the mountainous area to get married and have children. Mei Feng knew that it was Hu Peng who screwed him over so he waited for the right time and revealed his plans to the Patriarch of the Hu family. Mom Hu also became pregnant and she didn't want her child to be an illegitimate child so she clamoured to marry Hu Peng. Her father refused and told her to knock out the child. This caused a cold war within the Hu family for a while. Her mother put abortion medicine within her food everyday causing her to abort and be unable to have children later. Mom Hu couldn't stand it so she secretly married Hu Peng without her family's knowledge. Then she helped to divert resources from the Hu family to benefit Hu Peng.
Her family found this out and expelled her from the family on the grounds of colluding with outsiders.
Mei Feng and Yue Lian later had a child called Mei Qinghua. Yue Lian brought her up and firmly imprinted in her mind that she should go to the Yue family and Hu family for revenge. Because they had no money, they had to put Mei Qinghua up for adoption. at the orphanage.
Mei Qinghua then met both Yue Linlan and Hu Lianhua in the orphanage and they became fast friends.
Later however, both Yue Linlan and Hu Lianhua were adopted by the families she hated and she couldn't help but hate them as well so she schemed against both families and was used by their enemies to create countless crises. This is also the reason why the Hu family was declining today.
Dad Hu regretted his impulses when he was younger. He didn't need to ruin his best friend like that. But because of this, his life was very constrained since he had offended the Hu family and if the Yue family knew what he did, he would offend them too. He made many enemies who all wanted to see his ruin.
He wiped his hands on a dish cloth and poured the hot soup into a bowl. It looked very delicious and a sweet aroma permeated the kitchen.
Bai Lianhua came back after settling mom Hu and she immediately devoured the soup. Dad Hu looked at her quietly and knew the time had come for him to tell her everything. He sat down and started recounting the tales of his life from beginning to end and Bai Lianhua almost spat out soup at various points within the story. She couldn't believe that Mei Qinghua was actually in the right and she was wrong.
'So was Mei Qinghua justified in what she did?' That was the first question.
And the second question was: 'How am l supposed to get approval from people who hate my family?'
Bai Lianhua knew that Hu Lianhua and Yue Linlan were actually ignorant and innocent from beginning to end. They didn't know anything about the hatred between families but their lives were ruined just like that.
"System, come out for me! I want to sacrifice ten years of my life to ask a question."
"You ask it then." The system was ready for anything.
"Is it possible not to complete a part of the mission?" Bai Lianhua was curious about this because if she was allowed to, she definitely wouldn't want to try and get into the Hu family again. It was her mother and father who did bad things and they were expelled for legitimate reasons. There was no way that the Hu family would accept her.
"It is possible but it halves the points you receive at the end of the task. It can only be used in every other world which means in the next world, you cannot shirk any tasks - no matter what it is." The system knew the mission had changed but he didn't want to lose on this free energy.
"Another ten years for a question! Can l meet the original owner?"
The system was surprised that Bai Lianhua actually managed to guess this hidden feature: "Yes, you can meet the original owner once when you are doing the task. Why? Do you want to meet her?"
Bai Lianhua nodded vigorously: "Yes! I want to ask her what she wants."